• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.13-18
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• 2016

Humidifiers are used to control indoor humidity. Element-type humidifiers have the advantages of simple structure and low energy consumption, and Japanese products have been widely used for the humidifying elements. In this study, a new humidifying element made of cellulose and PET was developed, and the performance was compared with that of a Japanese element. The mass transfer rates and pressure drops were measured for an element installed at the entrance of a suction-type wind tunnel. The humidification efficiency of the new element was 2 to 4% greater and the pressure drop was 23 to 32% smaller compared to the Japanese element. The mass transfer effectiveness ($j_m/f$) of the new element is also 5 to 28% higher. However, the water absorption capacity was smaller than that of the Japanese element, meaning further development is needed.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.732-740
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• 2019

Evaporative humidification using a humidifying element is widely used for humidification of a building or a data center. The performance of a humidifying element is commonly expressed as humidification efficiency, which is used independent of air temperature, humidity and water temperature. In this study, a series of tests were conducted at two air conditions (data center and commercial building) using two different humidifying elements (cellulose/PET and Glasdek) changing the frontal air velocity and water temperature. Results showed that the measured humidification efficiency was dependent on the air condition and water temperature. In fact, even dehumidification occurred at the inlet of the humidifying element at the air condition of commercial building. The reason was due to the inlet water temperature, which was lower than the dew point air temperature. As the difference between the inlet water and the dew point air temperature increased, the humidification efficiency decreased. This suggest that proper thermal model should account for the inlet region, where the amount of moisture transfer may be different from the other part of the humidification element. A simple analysis on the thermal performance of the cellulose/PET humidification element showed that the Sherwood number was adequately predicted, whereas the friction factor was ovepredicted, probably due to the simplification of the channel geometry and the neglection of the water film on the element surface.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.326-331
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• 2018

Evaporative humidification using a humidifying element is used widely for the humidification of a building or a data center. The performance of a humidifying element is commonly expressed as the humidification efficiency, which is assumed to be independent of the air temperature or humidity. To verify this assumption, a series of tests were conducted under two air conditions - data center ($25^{\circ}C$ DBT, $15^{\circ}C$ WBT) and commercial building ($35^{\circ}C$ DBT, $21^{\circ}C$ WBT) - using humidifying elements made from cellulose/PET and changing the frontal air velocity from 1.0 m/s to 4.5 m/s. Three samples having a 100 mm, 200 mm, or 300 mm depth were tested. The results showed that the humidification efficiency is dependent on the air condition. Indeed, even dehumidification occurred at the inlet of the humidifying element at the air condition of commercial building. This suggests that a proper thermal model should account for the inlet area, where the amount of moisture transfer may be different from the other part of the humidification element. As the depth of the element increased from 100 mm to 200 mm, the humidification efficiency increased by 29%. With further increases to 300 mm, it increased by 42%. On the other hand, the pressure drop also increased by 47% and 86%.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1658-1663
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• 2015

To control the indoor humidity, humidifier is installed in an air handling unit. Up to now, foreign product made of glasswool has been widely used as a humidifying element. In this study, a new humidifying element made of cellulose and PET was tested, and the performance was compared with Glasdek element, which is made of glasswool. Mass transfer rates and pressure drops were measured from the element which was installed at the entrance of the suction-type wind tunnel. Results show that, $j_m$ and f factors of the new element are 33%~39% larger and 0%~51% smaller than those of Glasdek. Large water absorption capacity and the smoothness of the new element appear to be responsible for the large $j_m$ and small f factor. The mass transfer effectivenesses ($j_m/f^{1/3}$) of the new element are 36%~63% larger than those of Glasdek.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2016

New materials and shapes for a humidifying element were developed which outperformed the widely used crisscross glass wool Glasdek media design. The new material consists of 50% cellulose and 50% PET. The parallel channel configuration was devised to reduce excessive pressure loss caused by the reduced height (from 7.0 mm to 5.0 mm) of the crisscross configuration. For the same crisscross configuration, the humidification efficiency of the cellulose/PET element was 26% higher than that of the glass wool element. For the same cellulose/PET material, humidification efficiency of the parallel channel configuration was 14% higher than that of the crisscross configuration. As for the pressure drops, the cellulose/PET element was 2-52% higher than those of the glass wool element. For the same cellulose/PET material, the pressure drop of the parallel channel configuration was 14% higher than that of the crisscross configuration. Data were compared against the predictions from existing correlations and those by the proposed model.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.7-13
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• 2017

A comfortable indoor environment is important considering that many hours are spent in residential or office space. A humidifier is used to control the indoor humidity. In particular, an element type humidifier has the advantage of a simple structure and low energy consumption. Two types of humidifiers - stationary or rotor - are commonly used for residential purposes. In this study, performance optimization was conducted for a rotor-type humidifying element used in a residential humidifier. The optimization included the rotation speed, water submersion depth, etc. The test range consisted of an open area to the air from 57 to 90%, rotation speed from 0.2 to 2.0 rpm, frontal air velocity from 0.5 to 2.5 m/s. The results showed that the optimal open area to air was 70%. On the other hand, the effects of the rotation speed on the moisture transfer rate was negligible. On the other hand, the pressure drop increased with increasing rotation speed. As the frontal air velocity increased, both the moisture transfer rate and pressure drop increased. The humidification capacity of the present element was 0.08 ~ 0.31 kg/hr. A comparison of the data with the theoretical results was made.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.3051-3059
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• 2015

In this study, the effect of corrugation angle on thermal performance of corrugated plate is numerically investigated with an aim to develop humidifying element. Numerical analysis was conducted for a range of corrugation angle (from $0^{\circ}/0^{\circ}$ to $60^{\circ}/60^{\circ}$ for equal angle and from $15^{\circ}/0^{\circ}$ to $15^{\circ}/60^{\circ}$ for unequal angle). Results revealed that both j and f factor increased as corrugation angle increased. Especially, f factor increased significantly at high corrugation angles. j and f factors of unequal angle plates and those of equal angle (obtained by averaging unequal angles) plates were approximately the same. The largest $j/f^{1/3}$, which implies the largest heat transfer rate per consumed power, was obtained at $15^{\circ}/15^{\circ}$. Existing correlations under- or over-predicted the present numerical results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.579-586
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• 2017

In this study, new materials and shapes for a residential humidifying element were investigated. These elements could replace the current Japanese folded-type rayon/PE elements. Samples were taken from three different materials - rayon/PET (50:50), kraft/PET (40:60), kraft/PET/carbon. Results showed that the humidification efficiencies of the new samples were lower than those of the Japanese product. The efficiencies were 59% for the Japanese product (rayon/PET), 62% for kraft/PET and 84% for kraft/PET/carbon. This could be due to lower rayon or kraft content in the present samples than that in the Japanese product. However, pressure drops in the present samples were significantly lower than that in the Japanese product, due to improved channel configuration. The humidification capacity at the same pumping power ($j_m/f^{1/3}$) was 60% to 82% higher for the kraft/PET/carbon sample compared with the Japanese product. Furthermore, the results are compared with theoretical predictions.